Transition to Adulthood and the Intergenerational Transmission of Disadvantages Among Young Adults in Spain

Abstract

Explanations for the delayed transition to adulthood patterns in high-income societies need to account for interdependent forms of social inequality. Intersectionality theory offers a framework for interpreting interdependent forms of inequality and yet, it remains underused in quantitative research. We focus on Spain, a country with very high mean ages of leaving parental homes, marital union formation, and childbearing. We use information from a nationally representative survey and birth records to study how transition to adulthood patterns and intergenerational relations are intertwined with the intersection of social categories of inequality, including occupation, educational attainment, space availability at home, place of residence, income, homeownership status, and place of birth. We show that structural and interviewed constraints affect the Spanish population differently, and we describe the family and inequality processes that underlie divergent patterns of transition to adulthood.